Interesting article. And disturbing for Barça finances although the 40% number that they talk about is not correct, i believe.
http://tribunaexpresso.pt/football-...acoes-com-o-Real-Madrid-e-as-comissoes-do-cla
Files obtained by "Der Spiegel" and shared with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) consortium, of which Expresso is part, reveal the backstage of how Messi went on to earn more than € 100 million per year
MICAEL PEREIRA 15.01.2018 ÀS 15H53
It will be a day not to forget. In the lives of ordinary mortals, at least most of the time, love and money rarely coincide, but the date of June 30, 2017 shows how there are always people who can prove that this logic has extraordinary exceptions. The day Lionel Messi received 260 guests from all over the world to attend his long-standing girlfriend's wedding in the homeland where they met in Rosario, Argentina, was also the day of the new work contracts that the striker established with the Barcelona. And that makes him, a great distance from all the others, and despite being already 30, the highest paid player in the history of football.
Documents obtained by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" on the Football Leaks platform, and shared with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) consortium of which Expresso is part, now reveal how for the first time a club has secured more than 100 million per year to a footballer.
Behind the scenes on the negotiation of these contracts are exposed in hundreds of emails from Barcelona, bank statements and other documents analyzed by "Der Spiegel" and other EIC partners, including "El Mundo" in Spain and Mediapart in France, questioning the extent to which principles such as moderation and honesty are no longer taken into account when the only thing that counts in the world of football is the war around superstars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Neymar . Stick with them or lose them.
To a large extent the stratospheric salary jump was due to another player with whom Leo has made the greatest pair of the world-wide soccer, although only one of them put foot in the ball: Jorge Messi. One is the face of the other, father and son, and since they came together to Barcelona - when Leo sought, at the age of 13, a treatment for his growth problems - that are dribbling in the field in which each one moves better.
The father has been the agent of the son and in the new agreement with the Catalans got a commission of 5% for himself: 24 million euros in four years. But he did not stop there. Jorge has made it the club to take full cost of the dark side of Messi: the feints with which his advisors have bypassed the payment of taxes.
The Messi clan was informed in April 2016 by Barcelona that the tax authorities had opened an investigation into the club's payments to the player's foundation (read text beside), shortly before, in the summer of that year, father and son were convicted in another prosecution for tax fraud.
Although in the first case they escaped an effective prison sentence, the 4.1 million that the courts considered to have been the value that the state coffers were defrauded between 2007 and 2009 were returned to double: in addition to five million paid voluntarily in 2013 to avoid greater evils, the clan saw fines being applied to him in the amount of four million.
At that time, with a condemnation in the lap and a new process to be cooked, a lawyer specializing in tax matters assessed at Barcelona's request as "very high" the risk of payments made by the club to the Leo Messi Foundation between 2010 and 2013 to be also considered to be a crime, for allegedly being a wage component concealed as a donation (and therefore exempt from tax).
To mitigate a future new conviction, the Messi decided to pay 12 million euros to the state, again in anticipation. But at the club's expense. With the former player's contract expiring in the summer of 2018 and the fear of letting his biggest star leave without any rescission clause, Barcelona has accepted a solution that is at least ethically questionable. "Please stay on their side, quickly, make sure everything is done as it should be," club president Josep Maria Bartomeu wrote to the director of his legal team.
There followed a financial juggling. Barcelona lent 12 million euros to Messi for the player to settle the matter with the State. And so, the amounts given in previous years by the club to the Leo Messi Foundation as donations - that is, without withholding IRS - were voluntarily assumed as salary payments.
In a draft agreement between both parties it was written: "Even if the amount in question is formally paid by Messi, that amount will be fully absorbed by FC Barcelona." The Catalans agreed to pay the Argentine striker a bonus in the following season, 2016/2017, to cope with these setbacks with Spanish finances: € 23.1 million gross; equivalent to 12 million euros net.
A Barça official responsible for compliance - for checking that everything is in accordance with the rules - still raised doubts about the outlines of the loan, but were not taken into account. The e-mails analyzed by "Der Spiegel" show how one of the directors of the club asked the financial manager to neutralize the employee. "This loan can help persuade Leo to extend his contract. And if we do not do this, everything can get more complicated (or impossible). "
The administrator did as he asked. He wrote to the official: "We have to be aware that this matter is related to the most important asset of the club." It will be thanks to Messi, explained in the e-mail, that may come there important new sponsorships.
BARCELONA IS ... HE
Shortly after Messi's marriage, the legal director of Barcelona sent an email to the club's CEO. "ALELUYAAAA," was written in the subject field. "Thank you all for your dedication and effort. The renewal of Leo Messi ... was important for the survival of FC Barcelona. "
Ironically, the new agreement was not announced at that time. The club officials and the player's father had signed the contracts, but Messi himself was not required to draw his name. He has been postponing this momentum for months, because of a slight divergence around the value of the termination clause. Barça wanted to fix it at 300 million and announce it to fans, but Jorge Messi was not interested. Only in November did Leo finally sign the agreement. And the clause was announced. It had reached 700 million euros.
The numbers are all impressive. In the four seasons remaining until 2021 the "flea", as the player is also known, is entitled to receive 106,347,115 euros per year, provided that he remains as one of the key pieces of the team. And in the event that Barcelona conquer everything - the League, the King's Cup and the Champions League - and Messi take home the title of best in the world, the payment rises to 122,515,205 euros in a single season.
The annual bonus of 23.1 million euros agreed in the previous year for Leo to deal with his problems with the Treasury, according to the documents, are now included in his new fixed salary.
The great rival of Cristiano Ronaldo happened to represent about 40% of all the mass of salary of the Catalan club. These calculations were made in Barcelona and there were even those who commented with concern the size of the gap: "The player has to be aware how disproportionate his salary is relative to the rest of the team."
Regarding 2013 interest by Madrid
http://tribunaexpresso.pt/football-...ssi-ia-para-o-Real-ganhar-mais-do-que-Ronaldo
Florentino Pérez suggested chartering two planes and closing the deal in mid-air. Messi would win 35% more than rival
MICAEL PEREIRA 15.01.2018 AT 15:56
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http://tribunaexpresso.pt/football-...ssi-ia-para-o-Real-ganhar-mais-do-que-Ronaldo
On June 22, 2013, the Spanish lawyer of Lionel Messi, Iñigo Juárez, wrote an email to Jorge Messi, the player's father and agent. Good news. He had met the bosses of Real Madrid. Messi had renewed his contract with Barcelona some months earlier in February 2013, which now included a 250 million euro termination clause, but Real Madrid was willing to cover that amount. They wanted to hire him for whatever it cost, according to what Juarez told his father in the exchange of correspondence obtained by "Der Spiegel" and shared with the consortium EIC (European Investigative Collaborations), of which Expresso is part. The meringues had dismissed Jose Mourinho from the position of coach in May and, with Carlo Ancelotti, were in the renewal phase.
Florentino Pérez, the club's president, offered Messi an average of 23.125 million euros net during eight seasons, until 2021. In addition, the Argentine could get all the gains of the contracts of image signed before the summer of 2013, without sharing nothing with the Real, which meant another 20 million euros per season.
The proposal contrasts with what was to be negotiated two and a half months later with Cristiano Ronaldo, when the Portuguese striker closed the extension of his bond with the Real until 2018 in exchange for 15 million euros net per year, to believe in what was released at the time by the Spanish press. He was now the highest-paid player in the world, but he still made less than 35% of what had been offered to his biggest rival. "Yes, the money is important, I will not lie, but it was not the priority," Ronaldo said at the time, when he officialized the extension of the contract in a public ceremony at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium next to Perez. At the Real since 2009, and even once elected as the best player in the world, Ronaldo was well behind Messi's résumé, who had won the prize four times in a row,
WRITTEN IN THE SKY
"They want to know quickly what's going on [on our side]," Juárez wrote to Jorge Messi. "They are willing to spend what they need for their son." The Real imposed a deadline of four days to close the negotiations, a condition hampered by the fact that the Messi are on vacation.
An emergency plan was suggested by Madrid. The club proposed chartering two private planes to enable a face-to-face meeting between the parties. The first plane would accommodate Messi and his lawyer, plus Florentino Pérez, the Real sports director and a tax specialist, with a proposed contract. The talks would be held in the air. Another jet would then pick up the player and the father wherever they had landed to return them to their vacation spot, while Florentino Perez would return to Madrid on the first plane.
According to the correspondence analyzed by "Der Spiegel", the generosity shown by the Realists was not limited to the player. They would give a 5% commission to the father. In all, 16 million in eight years. And there was more. It was already public that there was a criminal investigation into suspicions of tax evasion against the advanced, and perhaps an aid in this field. "They told me that they are putting pressure on Rajoy to find a favorable solution for his son," Juarez wrote. The lawyer, however, did not consider it credible that the club could maneuver the Spanish prime minister.
Faced with "Der Spiegel," Juarez simply protested against the spread of internal e-mails, calling it a violation of the law, in a reaction not unlike Real Madrid himself, who said he was "absolutely incorrect".
Although Leo ended up not going to Real, behind-the-scenes negotiations would have leveraged a position of strength that led Barca to improve his condition again in the next year in May 2014, raising his fixed salary per annum to 29.9 million euros, taking into account a draft contract to which the EIC consortium had access.
Rafael Buschmann, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Gunther Latsch, Nicola Naber, Jörg Schmitt and Michael Wulzinger contributed to this investigation.
The narrative in this article starts like a crime book:
